


Your Voice Makes Everything Okay

by shirosquared



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Flashbacks, Gen, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Season/Series 06, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 06:11:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15042494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shirosquared/pseuds/shirosquared
Summary: It doesn’t start the first night. After everything that happens, Keith lays down in the Black Lion and passes out immediately. He doesn’t dream that night.It begins on the second night, when they’ve had a bit of time to recover from everything that happened. He lays down with Shiro and Krolia in the Black Lion, and falls asleep.





	Your Voice Makes Everything Okay

It doesn’t start the first night. After everything that happens, Keith lays down in the Black Lion and passes out immediately. He doesn’t dream that night.

It begins on the second night, when they’ve had a bit of time to recover from everything that happened. He lays down with Shiro and Krolia in the Black Lion, and falls asleep.

His dreams bring him back to the facility full of clones, proof of what the Galra–no, _Haggar_ , and her Druids–are willing to do in order to achieve a goal. He fell, and he’s falling, falling, downwards as the facility splinters and breaks. He manages to catch hold of a platform, dragging himself up even as his muscles scream in protest. He gasps for breath once he’s up, both from fear and exertion, and he tries to get to his knife impaled in the ground but he can’t make it.

Shiro stands over him, staring him down with those cold, uncaring eyes that used to be full of so much warmth and love. A burning energy blade forms on his prosthetic, and without a second’s hesitation, Shiro strikes. Keith can’t reach his knife in time.

He feels _heat_ , and then _pain_.

Keith wakes up screaming. His cheek burns with the remembered heat, and he curls up with his face protected by his arms. He never wanted to admit it, but he’d been _terrified_. He had almost died then, without ever telling Shiro how he really felt about him. He’d almost made Shiro live with that guilt.

“–eith?” Someone’s speaking—they sound familiar. Keith doesn’t move, still trembling from his nightmare. “Keith.”

Keith recognizes that voice. He must still be in the facility.

_“That’s the Keith I remember!” Shiro taunts as their blades meet with a sickening clang._

Keith gasps, curls up tighter. “No, no, no,” he’s saying, so quiet he’s not sure it comes out at all.

“Keith?” A new voice. One he remembers. _Krolia_.

She hadn’t been there. What…

“Keith, you’re okay,” Krolia says. “We’re in the Black Lion.”

“Wh…” Keith can’t breathe, an iron fist constricting his lungs and forcing his heart to jump into overdrive. He’s shaky and can’t seem to get a hold of himself, his mind skipping between _now_ and _then_.

“He’s hyperventilating,” Shiro says, his voice uncharacteristically soft.

“Keith, please look at me.” Krolia again. Hesitantly, Keith pulls his arms away from his face. The Black Lion’s cockpit is dimly lit, but he recognizes the cool purple lighting nonetheless. Krolia’s face enters his vision, looking concerned but he’s grateful that she doesn’t crowd him.

Standing further back, looking stricken, is Shiro, looking so different from that moment.

_Shiro looked stricken. “I died, Keith.”_

_Shiro’s eyes were cold. “I should’ve abandoned you, just like your parents did. They saw that you were broken. Worthless. I should’ve seen it, too.”_

“Deep breath in. One, two, three, four, five, six… hold, one, two, three… out, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” The same voice. A steady presence by his side, returning despite Keith’s panic. But Shiro doesn’t reach out to touch him, doesn’t close the few inches between them. Keith closes his eyes, and listens.

He carefully times his breathing to Shiro’s instructions, until the last remnants of the facility fade away to the Black Lion’s cockpit. The wolf—Cosmo—presses against Keith’s other side, fur brushing against the fabric of his undersuit.

“Okay?” Shiro asks softly, looking over.

Keith nods slowly. “Yeah.”

“Can I come closer?”

Keith shrugs. “If you want.”

Shiro shuffles closer, lightly taking Keith’s right hand in his left. He squeezes gently, then lets go and loops the arm around his shoulders. Keith leans into the contact, closing his eyes again.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Shiro offers quietly.

“I was… back there, in the facility,” Keith says. Somehow, that’s all Shiro needs to know, because he squeezes him again.

“You’re safe. It’s okay. You saved me.”

“At one point, I almost… I almost thought…”

“Thought what?” Shiro prompts gently.

“That I wouldn’t be able to save you. That you were so deep under Haggar’s control that you couldn’t break free.”

“I wish I could’ve done more,” Shiro admits.

“What do you mean?” Keith asks. “You were being controlled.”

“Even though I was fighting her, it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t disobey direct orders, but I could fulfill them in a different way. She told me to lead you away, and to… to exploit our connection. I chose to bring you to the facility, to show you that I wasn’t… that I wasn’t the real one. I chose to fight you with your chosen weapon, a sword, to stall for time while I tried to fight her. When you said what you did… she’d told me to kill you. I think that if you hadn’t cut off the arm, I might’ve followed through.”

“You’re safe,” Keith promises. “It’s okay. She can’t get to you anymore.”

Shiro relaxes, and Keith relaxes, too.

They’re okay.

They both close their eyes, and rest.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me over on Tumblr at [shirosquared](https://shirosquared.tumblr.com)!


End file.
